It is desirable to form stoichiometric silicon nitride layers in microelectronic devices which simultaneously have low stress, that is less than 1000 megapascals (MPa), and low hydrogen content, that is less than 5 atomic percent. Such films would be useful for a variety of microelectronic applications. Silicon nitride films formed by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) may have low stress, but have high hydrogen content, above 15 atomic percent, which can cause reliability problems and poor etch resistance. Films formed by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) have low hydrogen content, but high stress, above 1000 MPa, which can cause device performance problems.